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Talk:Mellifer
"Mellischwuler" - possible catastrophic typo? The word "schwuler" in contemporary German means "gay" in slang. It used to mean "hot, humid, heavy" in weather terms. Neither word seems too appropriate for a queen bee, while all other creature names are pretty much clear ("hunter bear", "bloodbath", "witch beast"). However, since the words "queen" and "queer" can be easily mistaken by a translator... Could this "schwuler" part be the result of a very unfortunate spelling error..? Sine Pi 14:13, December 9, 2011 (UTC) Actually "schwul" means only ''"gay". The german word for "hot and humid" is "schwül" - though it's easily confused of course. Unfortunately i don't have any explanation why it's called "Mellischwuler". Maybe it's just a very unfortunate coincidence? (Hakuna Matata 00:56, December 10, 2011 (UTC)) :Nope, "schwul" meant "sultry, hot and humid" long ago. Today it means something different apparently. See: http://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/schwul - RaptorWiki (Ryan) - Pixar Wikia/Terra Nova Wikia/Grimm Wikia Administrator 04:12, December 10, 2011 (UTC) :I think the greater challenge is that the average American, including American script writer, doesn't know what the use of an umlaut (that's the two small dots above a vowel) can do to a word. Pronunciation can be a trial to the non-German ear. We need to call creatures what the producers call them and footnote the differences. Argument is good, is genteel.-- 13:50, December 10, 2011 (UTC) ::The word with the diereses: http://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/schw%C3%BCl :: - RaptorWiki (Ryan) - Pixar Wikia/Terra Nova Wikia/Grimm Wikia Administrator 14:37, December 10, 2011 (UTC) ::: Well as a German I believe they meant to say "schwül" which actually means humid. Only the Umlaut is missing. However all those character names are quiet amusing and do not make much sense to a native speaker. Mellischwuler therefore is no exception ;). :::: Not one voice in favour of my "Queer Bee" failure theory? Awww. :P 03:40, January 22, 2012 (UTC) :::::Keep in mind the Grimm Brothers (and understandably, Marie Kessler, since her first language appears to be English) would have used Old German, not modern German. In the Old German texts, spellings were terribly inconsistent. Bob the WikipediaN (talk • ) 06:41, January 22, 2012 (UTC) ::::::Please get your languages in order. "Old German" (just like "Old English") was a language spoken in the earlier Middle Ages. The Brothers Grimm spoke New High German, aka the German language still spoken, in fact they even coined the term. Old German is not any more intelligible to modern German speakers than ''Beowulf is to English ones. ~Sprachkind (Talk), formerly :::::::I didn't know that, danke! :D Bob the WikipediaN (talk • ) 02:07, March 23, 2012 (UTC) :::::Well, I am in favor. The dictionary slip is the simplest and easiest explanation, and (going by the principle Occam's razor) thus to be favored; the whole explanation with schwül is rather awkward. And they have made that same error of not being able to use a dictionary again since then, e.g. with the Skalen-'': they were going for 'scales', picked up a dictionary (unless they just go for broke and use a machine translation, but I am feeling generous), look up 'scales', but are then unable to pick the right one. In that case, they picked the word that meant measurement scale (''Skala) instead of animal scale (Schuppe). In this case they presumably did the same: look up 'queen', but then did not pick 'female regent' Königin, but the term queen as in gay, and thus somehow ended up with Schwuler aka 'gay person'. :::::Considering the real, linguist Brothers Grimm were the starting authors of kind of the hugest German dictionary to grace us, the show's approach to the German language (and linguistics and language in general) is really sad. ~Sprachkind (Talk), a native speaker, formerly 16:59, April 1, 2012 (UTC) ::::::That's a stunning point about them being linguists. You ought to write NBC! That's the best argument I've heard yet! Bob the WikipediaN (talk • ) 02:37, April 5, 2012 (UTC) :::::::How so? And shouldn't they know that already? And while a show that supposedly traces itself to two linguists failing at that language is especially headdesky, one should always strive to do things right. And it's especially stupid nowadays with the internet, as there should be enough resouces (both textual and human) just a click away for any topic you could want. And that includes language too, there are enough people and enough sites willing to help translate stuff. I mean look at me, I'm here to help with the language and I don't even watch the show. So even if the show cannot pay for a translator of their own, the writers could at least seek some help. Great, and now I can't help but wonder if they are forbidden from outside help due to legal reasons and copyrighty stuff; that would at least explain things. ~ Sprachkind 10:33, April 5, 2012 (UTC)